Published 4:30 am, Wednesday, January 22, 2014

When activist investor Daniel S. Loeb met with representatives of The Dow Chemical Co. in December, the company had already stolen his thunder.

Dow had just announced a plan to shed $5 billion in assets, part of a long-term effort to streamline itself. Loeb, after weeks of talks with Dow, announced his own proposal on Tuesday, revealing that his firm, Third Point, had taken a large stake and suggesting that Dow spin off its petrochemical business.

Investors cheered the arrival of Loeb, sending Dow’s stock up 6.6 percent to $45.93 a share. Third Point’s stake in the conglomerate, worth about $1.3 billion, is the hedge fund’s largest investment.

And yet, this new activist campaign is different from others waged in the past by Loeb, who made his name by sending venomous public letters to chief executives agitating for management shake-ups or other changes. Instead of proposing a radical new direction or changes in the top ranks, Loeb wants the company to do more with its existing strategy, suggesting that it hire outside advisers for a review of its business.

“With the difficult task of balance sheet de-levering behind it, Dow finally has the opportunity to embark on its next transformational deal,” Third Point said in its quarterly letter to investors.

This delicate dance underscores a new reality in which blue-chip companies, increasingly aware of the possibility that an activist investor could come knocking, are in some cases looking to pre-empt such a strike.

In Dow’s case, two similar companies — the industrial conglomerate DuPont and the industrial gases company Air Products and Chemicals — were the targets of prominent activist campaigns in 2013, fueling speculation on Wall Street that Dow would be next.

The chemicals company, based in Midland and tracing its roots to 1897, came under pressure in the recent recession. After trying to get out of a 2008 deal to buy the specialty chemicals maker Rohm and Haas for $15 billion, Dow ultimately consummated the merger after a legal fight. At the same time, Dow experienced a setback when the government in Kuwait chose to scrap a joint venture.

Last year, Dow sought to emphasize that it was focused on bolstering its stock. A quarterly conference call in October included many references to “shareholder remuneration,” Wells Fargo analyst Frank J. Mitsch wrote in a report Tuesday, adding that this wording suggested that “Third Point’s motives perhaps may have been known to management for some time.”

The plan announced in December — the company’s most substantial move to shed assets to date — included the disposal of its chlorine business, the company’s oldest.

In an interview with CNBC on Tuesday morning, Andrew N. Liveris, Dow’s chief executive, said the company was engaging in “self-help.”

Dow, which had been in discussions with Loeb for more than a month, seemed receptive to the investor’s ideas on Tuesday.

“We engage with all of our owners to understand their views and we welcome all constructive input with a common goal of enhancing long-term value,” Rebecca Bentley, a spokeswoman for Dow Chemical, said in a statement Tuesday.

Loeb is proposing that Dow split its petrochemicals operations from its specialty chemicals businesses, leaving a more streamlined company focused on businesses like agriculture and electronics. Such a company “would be the specialty chemicals leader that Dow has aspired to become over much of the past decade,” the letter said.

In providing investors with an update, Third Point revealed other new investments as well. The firm said it had become one of the largest shareholders of Ally Financial, the former financing arm of General Motors, accumulating a roughly 9.5 percent stake through private transactions.

The hedge fund also said it had acquired a stake in T-Mobile, arguing that the wireless carrier could make an attractive merger target for Sprint. Loeb’s firm also owns a stake in SoftBank, the Japanese company that owns Sprint.

In the case of Dow, Loeb has not met Liveris. The two men, however, are in the same city this week for the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.